


Lost in the Dark

by StarryOfThy



Category: Rockman X | Mega Man X, Rockman Zero | Mega Man Zero, Rockman | Mega Man - All Media Types
Genre: Character Study, Claustrophobia, Hallucinations, How Do I Tag, Hurt No Comfort, Insomnia, M/M, My First Work in This Fandom, Nightmares, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pre-Rockman Zero | Megaman Zero, Psychological Trauma, Questions, Suicidal Thoughts, Suicide Attempt, Triggers, Unresolved Emotional Tension, Why Did I Write This?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-31
Updated: 2020-11-03
Packaged: 2021-02-22 11:30:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 8
Words: 9,463
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22048669
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarryOfThy/pseuds/StarryOfThy
Summary: It was presumed that after Lumine's death, Copy Chips were forced to stop production. Hundreds of years later, though, both of these elements lie slumbering in a hidden tomb, within a prototype and Maverick Hunter of times forgotten.(Read Tags)
Relationships: Axl & X (Rockman), Axl & Zero (Rockman), X/Zero (Rockman)
Comments: 23
Kudos: 73





	1. First Light

**Author's Note:**

> So like- This is a thing that happened as a result of the question "What the hell happened to Axl in Megaman Zero?" I'm fully aware that Axl appeared in X7, and Megaman Zero took place TECHNICALLY after X5 came out but stuff had to change because of X6. But if they could have fit Axl into Megaman Zero my life would have been completed. Also ironic chapter name-  
> Tags will probably get added later.

It was dark.

That's the first thing he realized when his systems hummed to life.

He blinked open his eyes slowly, though it did little to increase the light levels of the room he was in. He was on his knees, he felt that now. He coughed and groaned, feeling dust had settled in his throat. That only happened once, when he was in the medical wing for a few days. It had only been a little, but he was coughing for a good few hours after waking up. Now, though, as he tried to take a deep breath, a trick that had helped back then, he burst into a coughing fit. He tried to raise his arm instinctively to cover his mouth as a human would, but it remained dangling at his side.

Confused, he turned his head to see what was wrong. Wires tugged at the back of his head, and he scoffed in annoyance. He tried moving his arm again, which looked weird, with much lighter gauntlets, but only received a pathetic twitch in return as his optics adjusted to the low light. He saw that the rest of his armor was much lighter looking too, wearing a vest rather than a chest piece, no wide shoulder pads, and sleek gauntlets and boots. A crack in the tiled floor in front of him suddenly caught his attention, the winding roots of cracked concrete alarming him. Where even was he? His scanner was pretty scrambled, but he knew that this sure as hell wasn’t HQ. Panicked, he shifted to his other arm, results remaining constant for his entire body neck down.

Frantically, he whipped his head around for some sign of another person. He gasped as he saw the ruined remains of what looked like an abandoned lab. A computer monitor was crushed under a slab of concrete from the ceiling. Loose wires and tubes hung hazardously. Broken glass from smashed test tubes littered the ground. Huge cracks and holes stretched across the confined room’s walls, and in the looming darkness of the lab, he felt the familiar loneliness from when he left Red Alert.

'Where am I?'

His breath seeped into his artificial lungs, and he coughed again, a small cloud of dust managing to escape his lips. He was becoming increasingly aware of just how cold it was in here, and he desperately needed something to wash away the fuzzy feeling in his throat. A subtank and an explanation would be nice right about now.

He also noticed the sealed metal door across from him. The heavy sliding door would likely need a keycard to get in, or some kind of security pass. That, or some kind of heavy blunt force ramming into it at high speeds. Better yet, some kind of super-heated material to simply melt through it. Zero came to mind first, and he chuckled as he recalled the red Hunter’s habit of using brute force to open a way.

Zero. The fond memory dissipated as his panic spiked once more. 'Where is Zero?' The thought of his friend pulled him back to other memories, where the blue Reploid of his mentor appeared. 'Where is X?'

He struggled to breathe as pain wracked his chest, his coughing already sounding dry and raw. The dust didn’t help. 'Where’s Ailia? Where’s Palette? Layer? Signas?' Name’s of his companions and friends rushed through his head and his processor could barely handle the sudden stress. Okay, he wasn’t usually the type to worry. He was fully aware that his friends could take care of themselves. But he supposed he was also worried about his own circumstances. After all, being unable to move in a decrepit old lab doesn’t just happen.

He knew what happened a long time ago just fine. Not really “long time”, per se, but as long as he could remember. His name, Axl, obviously, Red Alert, The Maverick Hunters, Zero, X, Sigma…

Lumine...

He closed his eyes and tried to calm his mind. 'Breathe…' He slowly pulled a shallow breath in, the back of his mouth stinging slightly, but he managed to refrain from coughing. 'Good enough. Now, think.'

He tried to remember. It came slowly, but surely.

\---

Pounding pain was probably the thing he noticed as he awoke. He groaned, but could already feel a high power light shining on his face, so he refused to open his eyes. He’d prefer not to go blind today.

“He’s awake!”

He flinched at first, but he relaxed, his expression softening as he recognized X’s voice. Least he knew someone in the room and likely being in the medical wing, he wasn’t alone in a repair pod.

“Hey, how you feeling, kid?”

Zero was here too. The twinge of worry in his voice threw Axl off, but besides that, his voice was still the same as always. Hard and commanding, as usual.

Axl raised an arm up to shield his eyes, sitting up and finally squinting in the brightly lit Maverick Hunter HQ. Zero stood to his right, arms crossed as his blue eyes flashed with concern, X on his left, leaning forward a bit, barely hiding his expression of fearful worry. Classic Zero and X. “I feel like I was hit by a truck,” he complained, his voice hoarse from being unused for- he checked his internal clock- two weeks? Damn. No wonder Zero sounded worried.

“Would have been better if you actually were.” Speaking of Zero, his comment receiving a tired glare from X and almost caught the New Gen off guard until the teenager let out a dry chuckle.

“That bad, huh?”

X nodded, backing up and taking a seat on a nearby chair. “We weren’t certain you’d pull through. We’ve spent a lot of our free time here in case you woke up,” the blue hunter sighed, rubbing his temples.

The New Gen scratched behind his head. His auburn hair was messier than usual. “Sorry to make you guys worry. Didn’t think I’d cause a fuss,” he replied, gingerly pushing himself up until Zero cleared his throat.

“If you actually think you’re getting up right now, think again. We still aren’t sure of your condition,” Zero said, his voice almost scolding, and Axl flushed.

“What?! You think I’m just gonna sit around after I finally wake up? It feels like my joints are rusted! I need to move! Let off some steam!” the redhead protested, still half sitting up.

“We understand. But please, Axl. We don’t need you damaging yourself any more than you already are,” X cut in, sounding firm but soft at the same time, a tone he only used when he was worried about someone’s safety.

That ‘someone’ in this situation was Axl.

The black Reploid hesitated, before huffing and laying back down, crossing his arms. He puffed up his cheeks in a pout. “No fair…”

Zero hummed, his form of a chuckle. “Calm down, trigger happy. You’ll be up on your feet again in no time,” he said, ruffling the ginger hair on Axl’s head affectionately.

X laughed softly at the two of them. Axl just glared at his superior, daggers in his eyes.

\---

He’d laugh at his childishness, and then deny he ever acted that way during the exchange. However, the current situation made him a bit too tense to do so. Not to mention there was no one around to deny anything about past behavior in this dark, dank room. Irritated, he tried to move again, still to no avail. He had to find them. There’s no way he’d been left here on purpose. The most logical thing he could think of was he was kidnapped, his recent memories suppressed, and he was paralyzed and locked in this room. Damn, that sounded kinda cliche and cheesy.

Axl grit his teeth, glancing at the walls around him. How did he get here? It would at least help to remember that. Goddamn… If only Palette were here. She’d find him in no time flat. X and Zero would break that door down like badasses and then find the one responsible for this. Hell yeah. That would be awesome right about now.

It just didn’t help that the signal scrambler was screwing with his communication attempts.

He sighed, flipping his head back. The plugs for tubes and wires rubbed uncomfortably against his back and dug into his neck. He hissed in annoyance, wishing he could just reach back and yank the damn things out.

A beep in the back of his mind made his vision flicker. He clenched his jaw as pain coursed through his mind, a headache rushed his nerves. As quickly as it appeared, the feeling gave way to lightheadedness, and his neck rolled forward.

“Ugh…” he moaned groggily, suddenly aware of what was happening.

He couldn’t stop his eyes from closing, the drone of his systems slowing to a halt.


	2. Time Flows On

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Axl's mind starts deteriorating.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is a little short and has some swearing in there. So... yeah.

Lucidity began to flow through Axl’s nerves, his mind waking to the sound of him coughing. Dust again. How long had he been sitting here for that to happen again?

He opened his eyes, cringing at the dark lab once again. He was getting bored with it already, and he’d only seen it twice. Why was he even in here? He didn’t understand how he got here. He pretty much needed to know that at this point. He wasn’t going to be getting out of here efficiently otherwise.

The New Gen yelped and shivered as he felt cold liquid drip down his back. His body didn’t react, but he hissed and whipped around in confusion. Water dribbled from the ceiling and down the cords attached to his neck, allowing the liquid to slide into his vest. He scoffed, shuffling in discomfort. ‘This is the worst.’

Well, least he knew that the place was aging. That was a clue he could use.

He turned to the room again, raising his gaze to the ceiling. He couldn’t hear very well, but the faint patter of rain on a roof came from above. More water leaked from cracks in the ceiling, sliding down the walls in darker streaks. He was first alarmed as he saw a broken computer in a puddle, a usual hazard, but he recalled that the only electricity was likely stored in whatever the wires jabbing his neck were connected to. Wherever that was. He didn’t care much.

He sighed, blinking to try to focus the room a bit more. He hated this. The cold dampness was seeping into his artificial muscles and joints, and if he stayed immobile for much longer, rust would ensue.

He glowered at his arms, biting his lip as he exerted every effort possible to move even his fingers. All he was able to recieve was twitches and jolts, hardly worth the energy expended. Axl gasped out, lowering his head to stare at the tiled floor. ‘Why is this so damn difficult?!’

He felt like crying. This was worse than that hit he took from Lumine. Whatever it was. Maybe that was it. Was Lumine still alive, screwing with him? Was he still trying to carry out some sick will of his?

All he could do was let out an anguished howl as the ceiling cried.

\---

“Nothing seems to be wrong…”

“Really!? Yes! I’m free!” The black New Gen darted out of the Medical Wing before the doctor could stop him. After being cooped up in there for an extra three days, he was dying to hit some moving targets in the training range.

He moved fluidly through the halls of HQ, squeezing between groups and waving at anyone that gave him a shocked look with a mischevious grin plastered across his face. Being gone for two and a half weeks had an impact, it seemed.

Axl burst into the S-Rank break room, his arms thrown up in the air. “Guess who’s back, bitches!?” He hollered, receiving a mixed response of disapproving stares and shocked gasps. He was easily able to detect the look of X and Zero turning around, both sighing and shaking their heads in unison as they walked up to the New Gen, who was practically jumping for joy.

“Where’s my Bullets?” the black reploid blurted out. “I am dying to shoot something.”

X blinked at him, looking tired, while Zero rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Who let you loose?” Zero asked, annoyance edging his voice.

Axl just shrugged.

The blue hunter sighed again, pushing his apprentice out of the break room. “I’ll show you where they are, but stay out of our hair for a while,” he scolded the New Gen, beginning down the hall. “I swear, where do you get all this energy?”

“When you leave me alone unmoving for too long, it builds up and then explodes!” Axl laughed, jogging after X. “I’m just a ‘trigger happy moron’, as Zero says!”

“You can say that again…”

\---

The memory came unexpectedly, and he was a little shocked when he felt a sudden giddiness from the flashing image of him laughing after X to his room to pick up his Bullets.

‘My Bullets.’

Panic caused his core beat to intensify as he thrashed his head around in frantic search for his iconic weaponry, his auburn hair brushing uncomfortably between his neck and the plugs, but he didn’t care. ‘Where’s my guns?!’

Axl grit his teeth against the rising coughs. ‘Damnit!’ He was the most miserable Reploid alive. He felt his fingers involuntarily twitch, his “trigger happy” habits surfacing. He needed to move. He needed to get up. He was only able to move his head and neck, and his entire body ached with the urge to move. He had to. He had to find X, Zero, the Hunter Base, his Bullets-

Oh, the list of things he needed right now…

He needed Zero telling him not to be so reckless and take his job more seriously. He needed X to scold him for being stupid and forgetful. He needed- surprisingly- Palette yelling at him over the intercom to listen to her.

Axl felt like this was worse than the loneliness after leaving Red Alert.

He closed his eyes tightly, letting out a strangled sob. ‘No, don’t cry, damnit! You’re a Maverick Hunter! You gotta be stronger than that!’ Drawing in a breath, the black reploid let it out slow as he opened his eyes again. ‘Think…”

This felt like hell… He couldn’t help thinking that, at least. Maybe less firey than he initially imagined, but solitude was torture for him. Being alone was essentially like being dead. He never wanted to be alone ever again after Red…

‘Don’t think about that… Don’t think about how grateful you were when you were arrested by Zero. How happy you were when X finally warmed up to you and even started training you. Stop thinking about how much you enjoyed being a hunter with them.’

He was making it worse, and he knew it. He cursed under his breath at himself as the stinging feeling at the edges of his eyes arose. Why was he like this? Why couldn’t he just- he didn’t know- think about how cool it would be if he pretended to be Zero walking around base and confusing the hell out of people? That was some of the best times, he thought. It was so funny to flip the blonde whip of hair and yell, “I’m so fabulous!” in the red hunter’s voice. And then get chased by the real Zero, laughing as he yelled that he was going to kill him.

He barely registered he’d started chuckling at the thought, even less so the tears that had started dripping into the puddle beneath him.


	3. Past Life

He didn’t stop crying for several hours, and only realized he had been crying when the puddles beneath him had grown. Axl coughed a bit, his throat sore from the dirt and sobbing. He really hated this. He’s thought that over and over, but his hatred couldn’t be contained in his body, not even in this room. The walls were constricting more than the wires, and the stale air was musty and dank from the mold growing in the ceiling.

He realized that because he couldn’t move, his perspective never changing, the room was feeling smaller and smaller than he thought. He tried to think nothing of it, but he knew if anyone was in this lab with him, which there wasn’t, they would see his weakness plain as day. But because he was alone, he thought his ‘tough guy’ persona was shining through, and that made him feel a little better.

It wasn’t like he wanted to be the tough guy, though. That was usually Zero’s job, and he was just the cocky, trigger happy arms support. He was okay with that, and as far as he knew, so were X and Zero. That was why they were so close; they all were okay with how they acted and took action. X was calm and tried reason whenever he could, Zero was straight to the point, and Axl would always poke fun, even while getting shot at. That didn’t mean they didn’t know when they had to be serious and be sure not to hesitate. He was pretty sure they were all sick of Sigma, and now Lumine was just a kick in the shin that was really unnecessary, but all three S-Class Hunters could handle it.

Still, the fear of the room remained. It was a nagging feeling now, but he managed to close his eyes to avoid seeing it altogether. He tried to dig back into his memories, despite the error messages appearing in his optics. He grits his teeth, trying to catch even the smallest glimpse…

He only coughed again as his eyes snapped open wide. He felt dizzy, the room spiraling, constricting him, as his system crashed into the darkness of unconsciousness.

\---

It wasn’t so much a dream as it was a memory. Axl could feel himself walking, and he took a second to realize where he was. In front of him, the white, violet, and green New Gen’s corpse kneeled, facing the sky with an insane look frozen on his features. He could feel his pity all over again. This Maverick, this one wasn’t supposed to have gone mad. Axl knew this as well as X and Zero behind him, standing down. The New Gen, Lumine was no more.

That’s what they thought anyway.

“No.”

“Stop!”

“DAMNIT STOP!!”

Axl’s thoughts from the future screamed to shoot the damn body, but his body still didn’t feel like his, unable to process his commands. A sickening crack was heard as the corpse jolted violently, the chest cavity bursting open. A gray-violet… “thing” flung forward, and he gasped, his body tensed, hands going for his pistols instinctively. But he was too late.

The next thing he knew, a shattering pain in his head alerted him before the warning on his display. He didn’t need to read it to know what happened, but he was fading out. He didn’t even feel the floor as he was flung backward.

\---

Thrashing awake, Axl coughed and screamed as he tried to move repeatedly, errors flashing for damage inevitably occurring in his neck. He didn’t feel it, only crying for help as he imagined the thin, violet figure rushing to his face, and he could have sworn he heard the shatter again. And again. And again.

Tears came again and again, and he coughed and hurled, feeling his internal circuits convulsing uncontrollably. He didn’t have anything in his ‘stomach’, likely drained before he was put in hibernation, so he was only able to dry heave painfully, barely keeled over the tiled floor. He couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t see. He was blinded by pain and tears, asphyxiating on dust and his imaginary vomit.

It sucked. That’s how he’d describe it if he was coherent. Unfortunately, he wasn’t, and that left several holes in his mental defense. He felt like he was dying, but kept on the lifeline through the stupid tubes and wires jammed into his head. But even that was bound to snap eventually. A generator could only last so long, and if the grassroots sticking out of the ceiling told him anything, it was that he had been here for much longer than intended. No one alive remembered him, that was likely. The thought of everyone being dead… X, Zero, Alia, Palette, Layer, Signas... 

He pulled against the wires as far as he could. Sever it. He cried at the pain in his neck, but he didn’t hear it. His head was ringing. End it. He coughed, feeling lukewarm oil stain his tongue. Let the pain end.

He snapped back to reality within seconds. He leaned his head back slowly, the wires gaining slack once more. Axl spat the oil out of his mouth onto the dark floor as far as he could, never wanting to see it again.

What was he doing?

He didn’t want to die. He had to live. He would be found.

No one could possibly forget about him.

There we go, good old cocky Axl. That was a little comforting.

But he was confused. What was that outburst? He knew he was alone. This room had to be secured, even if it was crumbling before his very eyes. No one could get in here without a keycard or passcode or something along those lines. Otherwise, they’d need to break through the ceiling. There weren’t any holes in the ceiling yet, just chunks missing and cracks. Lumine couldn’t get in here. No one could get in here.

He was alone.


	4. Ghosts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He can't tell what's fact or fiction anymore...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I wrote this in a fever. If things change, It's because this isn't edited perfectly.

He never did get used to the room. It was too quiet for someone as loud as him. It was too small for someone with as much energy as him. Though he was rather limited at the moment, it didn’t ease him in the slightest. He felt contained, intentionally so. Which was probably the reason he started hating the place like a prison. A personal prison, almost.

Each time he woke up, it got darker, dirtier, danker. He felt water drip down into his armor, the seams loosening and joints rusting. It wasn’t painful, as far as he could tell, but panic crept into his mind regardless.

He felt filthy. Dust continued settling in his throat, often so badly that he’s forced into a spell of dry heaving to dislodge the large, water-packed clumps of filth.

Oh, yeah, the memories too.

That was probably worse than the room.

Each time he woke up, something would be remembered.

It wasn’t like the forced memory that he had ‘dreamed’. It was always much calmer, easing his mind, he guessed. After the whole Lumine thing. Probably after his injury, since everyone was worried about him. X and Zero pretended not to be, but he could see it. Not that it mattered much. He was fine, he could feel that. There was nothing to worry about.

One of the memories was him spending time with Palette. She was pretty snippy that day, and he didn’t know why…

\---

“I don’t need your help! Just let me do this myself!” The young navigator snapped, carrying a stack of datapads. Probably mission logs from other hunters. Axl couldn’t remember the last time he’d filled one out…

“C’mon, Palette! You can’t just have me sit here doing nothing!” The black New Gen grumbled, receiving a blue glare from her.

Huffing, she set the logs down, turning to him with her hands on her hips. “If you’re so keen on doing something, go to the practice range. I don’t have anything for you to do here.” He swore he heard another worried edge in her voice as he’d heard with everyone else.

Now, Axl was no analyst, like Palette was. But he knew her well enough to know something was wrong. She was hiding something. That much was obvious.

But he could play along.

“... Okay. Fine. I must be annoying you or something, taking up your workspace like this.” He sighed, adding a bit of dramatization to his act as he slid off the table and turned to leave. If she wouldn’t tell him the real reason, he’d find out for himself.

Even as he stepped through the door, he could tell Palette was hesitating, seemingly unable to find the words for a farewell.

\---

Palette being snippy was normal. Hesitant, not so much. She was like Axl, the type to speak her mind, especially if she felt ignored. That’s probably why they got along (and argued) so much. But as a navigator, it was her job to tell him what he needed to know. And she knew what he needed to know. That annoyed Axl, but it worried him now. ‘What didn’t she tell me?’

\---

“S-Class Hunter Axl, please report to the briefing room.”

Hearing his name over the intercom was refreshing and concerning. He could feel his classic excitement for a mission, but also a strange unease of facing Signas. Something- no, everything told him that this wasn’t just a mission briefing. X and Zero would have told him there would be a mission. It felt unnatural, after a whole month of moping around, walking down the hall (Not sprinting with a stupid grin) to the briefing room. It felt miles longer than it should have. He held his breath, almost dreading it. ‘What did I even do? It’s just a briefing, they’re probably letting me go on missions again, it’ll be fine.’

Yeah, he’ll be fine. Nothing’s wrong, he’s just gotten used to doing nothing. He was aching for a mission. This is a good thing.

However, walking into the briefing room was a different story. The air felt heavy and tense, and Axl pursed his lips. ‘Okay, this is different…’

All around him, S-Class, A-, even B- were talking in hushed tones. His entrance caused them to quiet, staring blankly at him. He shuffled uncomfortably, scanning the crowd of hunters for his mentors. Zero was situated in the back, arms crossed as he leaned against the wall, eyes locked on the tile floor. X was standing in front of the screen with Signas, continuing to speak occasionally quietly over something on the monitor.

‘What is happening?’

X looked up suddenly, his green eyes steely, which Axl wasn’t used to seeing quite yet. “Axl, we might have a problem.”

The New Gen panicked when the hunters in the room raised their weapons, pointed at him.

“X…?”

\---

… Was there something wrong with him? That’s the first thought after he remembered that, but there couldn’t be anything wrong. It didn’t make sense... 

Did it?

No, he couldn’t be. Well, the whole trapped in a room in hibernation wasn’t exactly promising, but he was fine, right? 

He… He must just be paranoid. Especially after that memory. Hell, maybe it wasn’t even a memory. It could have been a result of his paranoia. A hunter wouldn’t turn on another hunter unless they went maverick.

And Axl himself definitely wasn’t a Maverick.


	5. Heart to Head

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Why?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So- Um- I am a writing machine-

Axl was fairly certain that being alone for so long, and getting a shit-ton of flashbacks, wasn’t good for his psyche.

None of the flashbacks were particularly bad, he guessed, but the last one scared him. The Maverick Hunters only ever raised weapons to Mavericks. Not even to humans that supported the Maverick cause were met with lethal force, they just got apprehended. So why?

It could have been a waking nightmare. Yeah, that’s what it was. He’d been alone too long. His system was probably trying to make him more terrified. He just wanted to get out of here.

So as it stood, either something really bad happened or he was imagining things. That was a thing, right? A Reploid could imagine things, right? Well, in terms of what the particular limits of it were. He’d imagined things more times than he wanted to say. Like being top hunter, or thinking about how much he was going to smash a Maverick, only to realize how much harder it was to shove a giant panda’s arm through itself. He’d… rather not talk about that one.

Besides that, he didn’t know he could imagine so vividly. Or darkly, for that matter. He was pretty lighthearted- least, he was before this- and the only time he had imagined or even dreamed something that was anything like that was when he just joined the Hunters, after the 7th war and…

He didn’t want to talk about that either…

Okay, so trying to figure it out made him depressed. Good to know. Honestly, he didn’t get how being trapped here fit in the equation. First, everyone’s worried as hell about him after the Jakob incident, then he’s put at the gunpoint of every decent Hunter in the base, and then- as far as he knew- he wakes up in a dark, abandoned lab, possibly with a hibernation malfunction. He was rotting away, possibly for decades, underground while the room fell apart around him.

… What the hell was going on…?

\---

Maybe if the hibernation function decided what it wanted, he could have handled it. Being awake wouldn’t exactly be preferable, but he could at least decide when he wanted to sleep. And not for years. He could at least have that normality back.

But no, forced shutdowns were the norm. It sometimes happened in the middle of memories now, and always- ALWAYS- right before the climax of it, when he’d actually figure something out from something someone says.

The memories weren’t comforting anymore, either. They scared him again and again. Sometimes, he’d be running in a confined room, begging to be let out. Not this room, obviously, but one of the observation/Maverick holding cells in the base. He couldn’t even make out what he was saying, but he could tell he was pissed. Angrily shouting incoherently was a little terrifying when you suddenly jump to it from silence.

Other times, he’d be sitting in the corner of the room, knees drawn up to his chest as he glared at the door. It was… weird, and creepy. He didn’t understand what the hell he was doing, and it was just generally unsettling, the aura of the room radiating intimidation. Now, he thought that was all he was going to do in this memory, but it startled him when the door opened. He could make out the shadow of a hunter, holding something. Probably a tray with a Subtank or something, he wasn’t connected to any cords to charge him. He didn’t know why he started moving, the world blurring-

And then he’d shut down.

That one, in particular, made his core race with unease. None of these memories made him feel like…

Himself.

That’s probably weird to say, considering it was him. It had to be him. Or at least him pretending to be someone else. But even then, why lock him in a cell? Copy Chips were no longer in production or use, so it couldn’t have been another New-Gen. Now, he knew that it probably still could be another New-Gen, since he knew companies were very bad at keeping promises, but X and Zero had been investigating the company, ensuring they didn’t… cause any more ‘incidents’. They told him themselves. He was the only New-Gen with copy abilities. The only reason he was excused was because he’d been in a coma, and there was something about accidentally killing him if they tried to remove the chip. After all, they didn’t know the nature of his comatose state.

… Which sounded… odd.

Why couldn’t they figure it out? He tried to ask Lifesaver- or a Lifesaver drone, he couldn’t tell- in one of his memories. He didn’t get a straight answer, it consisted mostly of uncomfortable clearing of throats and sweaty hesitation. As well as a LOT of shuffling away from Axl. It left him more confused. He realized how weird and stupid and petty that all felt. That sure as hell wasn’t normal. It turns out that his idea of ‘playing along’ didn’t do him any good in figuring out what was wrong with him.

\---

“Axl.”

It was another memory. It was a lot like the creepy one, with him being curled up in the corner, eyes locked on the door. This time he didn’t move, though. It was X, his green eyes shown in the backdropped light with poorly disguised worry. The New-Gen had known him long enough to distinguish it.

He didn’t respond, though. No “What’s up, X?” or “Yeah?”. Just silence. Again, he didn’t feel like himself.

The blue Hunter continued anyway. “Are you aware of what you’re doing? You’ve been in here for a week. You haven’t slept. Only taking the Subtanks brought to you…”

A week? Okay, he’d only seen snippets of it, so he didn’t know he’d been in there so long, but damn. What happened to make him be quarantined so long?

But he still didn’t respond. It was like an out-of-body experience, and it was honestly even more unsettling than the way he stared unblinking at X.

… Wait, did Axl’s armor always shine that bright in this light? He supposed he hadn’t noticed, considering that the previous memories only had light for a split second. Why hadn’t he moved when X came in, though?

X stood there a moment longer, unmoving. It was like he was the wall standing between him and the rest of the base, protecting them. But why?

Why anything, at this point? Was he even at the base anymore? Was there something he was missing to understand why X was speaking to him in this manner? Why was he locked in this room, his mentor, his friend, blocking out the outside world?

Before any of those questions were answered by his logic processor, he felt his mouth open to speak. But it wasn’t his voice that came out. It sounded like his voice, yes, it was his vocal system, but it wasn’t how he talked. It wasn’t him.

“I suppose you want an answer, don’t you?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey- This is slightly longer- That's good, right?


	6. Inside

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Illness comes in many forms.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did something a little different this time around. It was really weird, actually. I feel like I'm leaving a lot unexplained, can you guys tell me if I am?

“Yes, in fact, I would. No matter how morbid or projective you make your answer.” The blue Maverick hunter growled, eyes gleaming with hate. Axl didn’t understand. ‘Who is that? That’s not me…’

The imposter laughed darkly in his voice, mouth turning up in a grin. “Before I do, I must say, this body is hardly preferable. Even with his New-Gen abilities, a prototype is still a prototype. He’s weak.”

“Shut up. You hardly have the leeway to talk about him like that!” X snarled, conflicting feelings twisting his expression. He was looking at his student and friend with an enemy’s soul. That was bound to cause some hesitation.

“It’s only fair. The idiot had the kindness in his heart, likely learned from you, to approach me. It was his mistake.” Before X could object further, ‘Axl’ continued. “You noticed far before this, didn’t you? You saw the signs. After all, two weeks in a coma after that kind of hit isn’t something that happens without an explanation like this.”

‘What the hell am I- Are they talking about?!’

Axl, again, was no analyst. But logically speaking, his electronic brain should have figured who it was sooner. As soon as he spoke, in fact. But that didn’t mean that realization didn’t have its impact.

Lumine.

“Why? Why would you do this? You were defeated on the moon, you know we won’t let you any further now.” The S-Class Hunter continued, fighting to keep his voice level now.

Lumine’s childish smirks weren’t exactly helping. “Oh, but you will. In this pitiful prototype’s body, I have plenty of bargaining material. After all, his consciousness is still inside this body. As much as I want to shatter his program now, it would be foolish to not use the opportunity to my advantage.”

‘Classic villain.’ Axl thought bitterly.

“So, because I have a hostage…” Lumine continued, tapping his- Axl’s chin thoughtfully. “You could say I could pull as many strings as I want, and there’s nothing you could do about it. I could leave right here, right now, and you couldn’t do anything about it.”

X didn’t respond, only glared at the former Director of the Jakob Project. It wasn’t exactly something he did often, but Axl knew. He knew X hated Lumine, so much so that his fists shook with fury. It… Scared him. X never got truly angry. It felt directed at him, even though he knew Lumine was the one driving.

The Maverick yawned boredly, waving X off. “I suppose I can relax for now, though. I’m untouchable like this, and you know it. So I’d prefer to milk it as long as I can.”

His smug tone infuriated the New-Gen prototype.

“... Fine. But should anything- ANYTHING happen to Axl, you’ll find me far less willing to talk.” X’s cold voice was the last thing heard, before the cell door slammed shut again.

\---

Axl wanted to scream. He wanted to throw up. He wanted to slam his head into a wall, shake that memory away. ‘It’s real. All of this is real. I’m… I…’

He remembered when he remembered the last time he saw Lumine. When he hit him with that- whatever it was. Tentacle. The nasty purple thing that came out of Lumine’s corpse. It was disgusting. It was terrifying. That… that voice. It was telling him to end it. Was that-

Well, it clearly wasn’t him. There was no second voice that naturally occurred, administering orders of its own to him that he carried out robotically. It was almost like a… Virus…

He didn’t WANT to die. That voice told him to. It was like it was controlling him, making him act out. It reminded him of the Mavericks he fought, or at least the grunts of the bigger target. They didn’t seem... in the moment. Like he was. They just did whatever they were told by a different force.

In Axl’s case, it was some weird, tentacle, manipulative asshole inhabiting his body like it was his own. That’s basically a virus in its own right.

It was kinda stupid, what he thought of next. He was clearly in here for a reason, and he was willing to bet a million Zenny that the lavender twink with a cheeky attitude was it. So, since that douche was probably making himself a cozy little home in his electronic brain, what would happen if he talked to the douchebag?

Of course, he’d look crazy to anyone, if anyone was here. But in the loneliness of this decrepit lab, no one could hear him if he started screaming profanities at something literally in his head.

Besides, Lumine could probably control his memories and other functions. If he allowed that memory to slip by, it was probably intentional.

So he opened his mouth to speak. He coughed a second, clearing his throat loudly in annoyance. ‘Stupid fucking dust.’ But he did manage to speak after a moment of contemplation of what to say.

“... Are you… there?”

He thinks back to what Zero said, and it would have been better to be hit by a truck. He sounded like grating nails on a chalkboard, his voice squeaky and unused after… what, a couple of decades? The lab didn’t give him a precise time frame to work with, but the damage could have easily happened in less than 30 years.

Of course, that wasn’t factoring in that the room’s integrity was at all good. So he’d say at least 50. If not, longer.

He received no response. He knew he probably sounded stupid. Talking to what seemed like thin air was always stupid in one way or another, but it was still something. He didn’t even really know what he was supposed to expect. It was pretty much terrifying, knowing there was something inside you that could kill you on a whim. It was like a fatal disease, but after your brain is dead, it takes your body for itself.

No wonder they locked him in here...


	7. Quiet

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Only one voice reaches him now...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow an update.

Axl didn’t exactly get an answer when he figured it all out. What did stop happening, though, were the shutdowns. He could sleep if he wanted to, but he really didn’t feel like it, considering everything going on around him. Nothing was going on around him, in case you were wondering.

So he was basically a ticking timebomb to eventually turn into a Maverick Zombie. If he hadn’t been through hell already, that might be the most worrying thing. He was pretty sure most of his systems were shot from underuse, though. If he was lucky, his joints were just frozen with rust. Even if someone did come for him, he’d be essentially useless until someone could repair him.

Memories stopped, too. He felt like an amnesiac again, but it wasn’t to the same degree. He didn’t know if that was a good or bad thing.

How Lumine manipulated X was so infuriating that Axl could hardly think straight, he was so angry. That unbelievable bitch-ass purple twink had the audacity to do that to his friends? Well, he was a Maverick, of course he did, but he had a right to be upset. That asshole was probably lounging in his program, acting like he’s innocent in all this. He was in no way, shape, or form in anyone’s eyes.

He didn’t even want to try to talk to the bastard again. His voice was in no condition anyway, it had gone numb long ago. He didn’t know what he wanted anymore. No one had come for him in what he could assume was a really long-ass time, so he was pretty sure he was forgotten. Not X nor Zero had come for him. Did they forget? Or was he really that much of a danger with that Maverick’s DNA inside him? He couldn’t fathom being left behind… Maybe it was his ego or his childishness, but his refusal to believe he was forgettable might have seemed sad in outside eyes. This decrepit, broken reploid, decaying in a confined room like a prisoner.

And it wasn’t because he did anything wrong, no. It was because of Lumine.

\---

…

He remembered it being dark in here, but it wasn’t this dark. No natural light could penetrate the bunker, so it was always gloomy. But pitch-black…?

Did his optic system finally give out? If so, he was fine. He didn’t care. He was sick of the view anyway.

What shouldn’t have confused him were the muffled voices. From the years of the lack of contact with others, Axl should have been ecstatic. There was someone else here-!

“No! You can’t take him too!”  
He flinched. That was much louder than the other voices, and he recognized it as well. It was X. His distraught sounded familiar, and he twitched. What the hell was happening?

Another stern voice, although quieter, seemed to negate what X had said. He felt like he was talking through glass, and if he was a scientist, he wouldn’t be surprised. Overruling hunter opinion was what scientists did best.

But what X said bothered him. ‘Too’? Don’t take him ‘too’? What did that mean?

God damn his fish memory.

“Please! He’s not the Maverick! Lumine is!” The blue hunter objected, and even if Axl couldn’t see him, just picturing his distraught expression made him panic.

‘X?! What’s going on?!’ The redhead couldn’t find his voice, and he couldn’t even open his eyes. He realized that’s why he couldn’t see.

‘…’

‘I can’t move.’

Axl’s body was paralyzed. He couldn’t even feel his legs or arms.

‘No! X!’

‘HELP ME!!!’

“Axl!”


	8. Peace

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's peace in the dark, but discovery entails the risk few are willing to take.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is long as hell, uh-
> 
> This was originally meant to turn out shorter, but I didn't want to skip out on the conclusion you guys deserve, so I took the time and effort (Damn, it was a lot of effort, lemmie tell you) to make something worth your time to read. Hence this finale.
> 
> Enjoy.

The dilapidated building was not a place one wanted to be. This place was overgrown, even in the desert. The plants found some abundance of water beneath the crumbling fortress. Vines crept like veins over the structure, slithering into cracks and through shattered bulletproof glass windows. It was a dull structure, made of concrete and metal, and whatever yellow paint that used to stripe the wall had faded in the unrelenting sunlight, peeling off the walls. It was partially sunken into the sand, and dunes had formed against it.

Cloth flapped wildly in the violent wind, sand rushing past the feet of the stranger standing outside the gaping, shaded doorway. A cold, musty air filtered out of the broken doors, no longer able to block out the glaring light, washing out the tiles. Whatever was inside, it either left a long time ago, or the door just gave in from the weathering. It didn’t matter to him.

The magnetic field around the place is what threw him off. His sensors buzzed uncomfortably in his head, not yet accustomed to the communication block. Even now, static rose from the line connected to the lab, the young scientist’s voice coming in broken.

“Ze- -ett- in-ference- unabl- -o stay in- -tact-”

He winced at the buzzing, lowering the volume. “The structure has a magnetic field deterring communication attempts. It was likely built to be some top-secret lab.” He responded, hoping it got through. “I’m going in, it’s probably empty, but you could use some equipment if I can find it.”

Ciel sighed brokenly, quieter now that the volume was tolerable. “Be ca- -ful.”

“I will.”

As he stepped through the doorway, the line disconnected with a droning beep. ‘NO SIGNAL’ appeared in the corner of his vision. It made this place feel even more desolate than the exterior made it out to be. It was cut off from the world, no longer what it once was.

He could have said that the inside of the building was in better condition, but it was clear that it, too, had seen better days. He was surprised to find puddles underfoot, catching any sand that came in and making sticky blobs on his boots. His eyes grew accustomed to the darkness, allowing him to see the yellow and black striped walls far better. Mildew grew from the cracked floor, mold on the concrete walls, and vines hanging from the ceiling. Grass poked from the crevice between the floor and the wall, making it look like a pathway through a jungle. If he didn’t know any better, he’d think he’d stumbled into Area Zero.

Undeterred, Zero pressed on, his blonde hair drifting behind him as he strode through the forest of leafy snakes dangling from above. Navy eyes locked ahead and alert, he gripped the handle of his saber, pushing the flora aside with his free hand. There were no animals within, and the further in he went, the less he could hear the howling wind of the desert, and the more he was consumed by the splash of his footsteps and the whisper of vines brushing aside. Everything was cold, wet, and dark, not exactly ideal for exploring, but he digressed. It’s not like he was submerged in water. That would be a nightmare.

The thickening vines threw off his rhythm, and he huffed with annoyance. He activated the teal triangular blade in his hand, striking as swiftly as a snake and watching the green whips drop into a pile at his feet, cut ends smoking and burning. They landed in the water, however, so no fire erupted from the plants.

The red Reploid stepped over them, finally able to stand without veins of life surrounding him in the already claustrophobic place. His cloak felt damp, and he groaned as he realized there was water in the ceiling, too. This building was doing its job, just not in the way it was supposed to. A structure that contained water, though, was more necessary than ever. Now his cape was soaking and weighing him down, and it was inevitable that his hair was no better. Raising his chin, he tore at the tattered cloth, his armor(as in, vest and pelvic armor) unveiled beneath. This experience was unpleasant, to say the least. At least vegetation had sprouted somewhere besides Area Zero.

He abandoned the cloak with the vines, continuing to use his saber as he descended. This was getting repetitive and boring, and he’d seen no alternative route up until now. The wind no longer reached him, and the echo of his approach was growing increasingly ominous. It wasn’t that he was scared but suspicious. How far did this hallway go?

He got his answer immediately after that thought, his foot giving way a little too much and nearly flinging him forward. He met concrete again, staggering three steps down before he realized it; There was a stairway here. It led down, even darker than it already was inside, and he sighed. Holding up his saber more as a light source now, Zero continued, a bit curious. It was a bunker if the clues weren’t obvious. Was the exterior misleading him to think it was more than just a hallway, or did the basement extend up that far?

The descent was cut short, and he was more prepared for the stumble, standing flat-footed as he looked around. Now, things branched off, the hallway filled with high-security metal doors. Using the term ‘high-security’ lightly, since most of the doors were as decrepit as the front door. Most were rusted halfway open, some of them had stopped working altogether and were stuck closed. There were a few, however, that he could slip through, either open just enough or open entirely. Inside these rooms were odd things, things he wouldn’t necessarily consider normal for a modern lab. Not even the lab that he woke up in was like this. There were glass tubes in the walls, containment units, he assumed, but didn’t know what for. What would they need glass containment for, anyway? It was fragile, normally, but only a few were broken, and it appeared to be from exterior damages. He didn’t understand all the papers left here, either. All of them were faded, most were drenched and almost melted into a repulsive, molding pile of pulp. The ones he could read weren’t very comprehensible. Parts that weren’t blotted out were talking about some type of disease or virus. It constantly referred to the same thing as one or the other, and it was confusing when it threw ‘parasite’ in there as well. Maybe it was just them identifying what it was specifically based on tests, and disease was what they referred to it as until they got to virus and parasite. But still, if it was a parasite, why did they still call it a virus?

His logic processor didn’t feel like lingering on the topic. He was getting burnt out. Press forward, find something salvageable. That was his current, self-imposed mission. Besides, the faster he got through the mission, the faster he could get his hair dry.

The other rooms were mostly just lab supplies. Destroyed lab supplies, that is. There were many computer units crushed under concrete fallen from the ceiling, tools so rusted they were unrecognizable, or generally unsalvageable materials. This was growing pointless since there was nothing that Zero could take with him that was small enough to carry back to Ciel. If he didn’t find anything or even didn’t sweep all the rooms to make sure, though, he’d get that nagging feeling of an incomplete mission. That was the last thing he wanted, so he persevered.

Down here, there were fewer vines and more tubes, which bothered him more if he was careless enough to run into one. They were either plastic or metal, both corroding yet sound. This place had been very interconnected, in a way. It was no paradise, but it had to have some form of communication if the comms were down constantly. He didn’t even know what could generate the field if this place was so old. Maybe it used to be for containment. It was underground, like the lab he was kept in was, but not necessarily sealed, since the doors weren’t in the best state. He wondered what they would have even kept here if they needed such an unusual lab.

If it was for containment, there could be a long term generator in one of these rooms. There had to be something supplying power. Even in such disrepair, this building would have had to have a well-protected source to have lasted so long. Energy was required for a non-naturally signal-blocking structure. A lot of it, for something of this size. If he could find it, maybe, since it didn’t need it anymore, he could salvage that instead. The expansion was always good.

Turning down the hall again, though, he picked something up. In a comm dead zone, he got something through his receptors. Surprised and confused, he didn’t recognize the signal, but it felt familiar. He didn’t know how or why it felt that way. The only thing that had done that was…

It couldn’t be. He was gone, long gone for a while now, and as much as it made him ache, he had to be logical about this. It wasn’t X. Besides, the Cyber Elf couldn’t have even gotten in here, with how blocking it was.

He picked up the pace anyway. Something was down here that he knew, that he’d understand. When he saw it, at least. The familiarity was always his first clue, and it grew stronger as he advanced. He could see a door at the end of the hall, the frame striped yellow and black and a warning symbol on it. The signal was beyond that, so Zero blindly slammed his hand against the door control panel. It gave a defiant buzz, so he raised his glowing saber. It made a pretty good key if he thought about it.

A wave of the sword and melting seams along his blade’s path appeared in the thick door. He shoved against it, a loud bang snapping him out of his trance. This was the darkest room yet, and he coughed at the dust that settled around the fallen door. Despite the gloom, a crack in the ceiling cast the slimmest stream of sunlight into the room, illuminating an ancient monitor and the crushed computer beneath a slab of concrete. The sound of water dripping from some higher place echoed through the seemingly contained cavern, the rushing wind once again audible as well. This place was what this fortress was built for, the final containment. It reminded him of where he woke again, only more cryptic.

He took a step. Then another. They too bounced off the walls with ominous sound, reaching him again in delayed notes. It was like a tomb, how its finality surged with unanswered questions in his mind. Energy could be detected here at while close, weak, yet visible for his sensors. Many pieces of debris cluttered the ground, water damage likely the worst in this room. That didn’t match up with his hypothesis. He’d of thought that a more damage-resilient room would be built to ensure the availability of back-up power for the building. It didn’t make sense.

His foot met metal with a clank. Zero recoiled, holding up his saber to see what he had accidentally run into, or hit an enemy in the dark. What he saw caused him to gasp, fumbling with his sword until it fell to the ground.

The green saber landed at the base of someone’s knees, a gray bodysuit with cracked black and red armor illuminated ominously by the emerald light. It was a reploid. Scans indicated non-biological origins. It wore similar armor to Zero himself, red stripes accenting the gold and blue. A shattered blue orb-like gem on their helmet struck him as unusually disturbing. The face was shadowed, even in the pale green light, and it was unmoving, even though it was very nearly cut by the blade.

It was deactivated, Zero realized. Otherwise, it could have very well noticed him by now and spoken up.

He found it oddly unsettling. He’d seen hundreds of thousands of reploids, decrepit and broken like this. Despite this, his imaginary stomach churned with unease- no, worry- as he stared at them. His mind was pounding, something buried beneath, locked away like all his memories were. But who was this? He knew them, but who?

He kneeled to the level of the other reploid, picking up his blade. Zero’s gaze transfixed on the shadow of the face, eyes squinting in concentration. He knew this person. He just knew he knew. Raising his free hand, he took lightly took hold of the reploid’s chin, tilting their face up to face him and the green light.

Dull green eyes met his, the faded pale face split by an ‘X’ shaped scar.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to all the people that enjoyed this story and commented and gave it support. It's one I enjoyed writing and meant to conclude much sooner, so thank you for your patience as well. I probably would have never even gotten around to finishing this, because I'm that bad at deadlines and am that much of a procrastinator, so just getting around to the end is a milestone for me. I hope you liked my interpretation of the What If scenario of Axl being in Megaman Zero.
> 
> -StarryOfThy


End file.
